‘Playful Identities’ research blog

[I wrote this blogpost earlier for The Mobile City]

Dutch tech/nerd blog tweakers.net report that Hyves, Holland’s most popular social network, has struck a deal with operator KPN (the biggest telcom in NL) to add locational information to text messages Hyves users send to each other. According to KPN, questions such as “where are you?” and “what are you doing?” are often asked by mobile phone users.

KPN customers can switch the service on by first registering for this service on Hyves. Whenever they send a text message containing information about what they are currently doing to a specific number, they will be positioned on a Google Maps application within Hyves, which may be seen by other Hyves users.

This is just another step in the field of LBS (location based services) that telcoms are seemingly desperately trying to develop. LBS had been a buzzword for some time now, but the real “killer-app” hasn’t come up yet. I’m curious to see how this will develop, since these are very strong partners indeed.

Just a thought, I think questions as quoted above like “where are you?” and “what are you doing?” shouldn’t be taken too literary. We don’t really need or even want to know this information all the time. They are often just a sign of reciprocal involvement with the life of the other person, a type of mobile gift exchanges.

Moreover, part of the fun in talking through the mobile phone is also the joy of imagining what someone else is doing at the moment, and trying to picture where he or she is. It is part of the process of creating “imagined proximity” or “co-presence”. I wonder what kind of new imaginings will arise when this kind of background information is already given through location based services? If we know all this kind of stuff in advance, is there even sense in still making the actual phone call? Perhaps in an unexpected way, LBS as the chicken with the golden eggs may turn out to be a bullet in the telcoms own foot.

3 Days after being back from Indonesia, I moved on to Budapest for the conference “Towards a Philosophy of Telecommunications Convergence” organized by Kristof Nyiri, where I presented a paper in the small session on locative media. Here’s the draft version:

From Always-On to Always-There (PDF - 412 KB).

Below a couple of NomadicMILK videos I posted on Youtube:

* NM fieldtrip part 1

* NM fieldtrip part 2

* Google Earth animatie:

* Robot demo TheUpgrade!

Yes, it’s our last day. Yesterday we arrived in Abuja, after having stayed a few days in Jos for the second time. We are again in Daniel’s place, Esther’s cousin. His internet connection was broken 2 weeks ago because overzealous road workers dug a trench in his street and cut through the telephony cables. Esther and I decided to do it the African way. We jumped into the dust pit with gaffer tape and a leatherman and tried to fix the telephone line by tying all threads of the same color together. And it worked…! (written proof here).

Here is mr. Dominic busy talking through his handset.

Business in Nigeria has changed a lot with the advent of the mobile phone. It has become much easier to arrange logistics and deal with customers. It comes at a price however. First, costs are very high for most people. Mr. Dominic spends between 10.00 - 15.000 nairas a month on mobile phone use (approx. 60 - 95 euros). One of his colleagues we spoke to - running a retail shop with many different customers - even claimed to pay up to 30.000 naira a month! And another cost is that while the mobile phone gives individual freedom to communicate and engage in business, it also places a heavy burden on ones shoulders, since family and friends are now constantly calling for help and support, even when far away. So mobile telephone technology in the west-African context seems to paradoxically promote individual possibilities and entrepreneurship and a discourse of modernity, while at the same time being a medium that provides possibilities for stronger reliance on ones social circle and strengthens tradition.

After visiting Lagos, we followed a Peak Milk transport by truck. Our driver was mr. Bello. He himself was of partly Fulani descent. When he understood that we were interested in \Peak Milk AND Fulani milk, he started to tell stories about milk and pointed out every Fulani herd we passed!

The whole trip to Jos lasted 2 days. The first day was not so quick due to engine difficulties. At the fall of night we had to split up and go ahead in the security car that followed us. This became a hallucinogenic 4 hour nightly speed-drive to Abuja, including deep potholes, sudden roadblocks, bushfires, the fear of armed robbers and joining a spontaneous car convoy at up to 140 km/h through thick layers of smoke. We arrived in Abuja at 22:00, 4 hours after dark. The next day drive to Jos was more comfortable

kablog-j2me 2.0.8 for Nokia6233

We were shown around by the proud Italian captain of the new port in Lagos, owned by Grimaldi.

kablog-j2me 2.0.8 for Nokia6233

Just a shot of a shot inside the WAMCO warehouse. We were comparing the quality of our photocams.

We have now seen the milk factory and the packaging process, went to the market were Peak Milk products are being sold and talked to the people there, went to Apappa Harbor where the ships with milk powder arrive & filmed pretty much all we need at this stage. In two days we will be in a truck that will take us to the north again. Hopefully we will be able to get a nice GPS track out of that too.

I was very uncomfortable with this way of transportation. This is a not-so-cool way to move around in this city. In my view it only draws more attention and creates more distance. At one point, a busdriver that didn’t move aside quickly enough was threathened by the armed guy right on the streets…. Luckily Esther was able to persuade these men to turn off their sirens the 2nd day.